Free the Music — A few days ago we sent out some cryptic invitations to a press conference in New York that Felix and Martin are presiding over. We've had fun in the office reading the rumors and speculation, but it's time to spill the beans: — As of today, you can play full-length tracks …

Southwest Airlines to test in-flight WiFi via satellite — It's taken a while, but it looks like Southwest Airlines is the latest (and no doubt far from the last) to jump on the in-flight WiFi bandwagon although, as with most, it's still quite a ways from rolling out the service across the board.

Apple turns tech stocks sour — Apple reported earnings that beat analyst estimates on strong sales of iMacs, laptops and iPhones. But its cautious outlook led investors to slam the stock Wednesday morning, and take much of the Nasdaq down with it. — Why?

WordPress.com Creator Raises $29.5M — Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and creator of open-source blogging system WordPress, stopped by my apartment earlier this week. Matt, who is one of my closest friends, brought his Texan sense of humor and all-around good cheer …

Act Two — You've probably seen the news on GigaOM, Automattic has raised a new “series B” round of funding. We're entering what I consider Act II of the Automattic story. I'll talk about where we're going, but first some history. — In 2005 Automattic was small.

Microsoft Joining DataPortability.org — Chris Saad, Chairman of the Data Portability Working Group, confirmed to me this morning that Microsoft's David Treadwell, a VP at Windows Live, will be joining the organization. Microsoft is expected to make a formal announcement in the coming days.

What to do if you're laid off in 2008 recession — It's sad to hear about layoffs at companies like Yahoo. Right now it seems like a bad time to be laid off. I'm here to offer some hope. — I laid myself off in February 2002. Remember that time? It was far worse than what we've seen so far in the economic turmoil of 2008.

Cheer Up, Ben: Your Economy Isn't As Bad as This One — In the Make-Believe World Of ‘Second Life,’ Banks Are Really Collapsing — In the real world, banks are reeling from the subprime-mortgage mess. In the online game Second Life, a shutdown of the make-believe banking system is causing real-life havoc for thousands of people.

Publicis, Google to Exchange Execs — Companies Plan to Share Talent, Collaborate to Develop New Products — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Publicis Groupe and Google are collaborating to develop new products and tools and exchange talent by embedding executives in each others' companies.

Real-Estate Search Engine Roost Launches With Full MLS Listings — Just when you thought the real-estate bubble had burst and the economy was going to hell, here comes another real-estate search engine. Today we see the launch of Roost, a real-estate site inspired by the lean look and feel of travel search engine Kayak.